Vipin Kumar, $^1a)$
1Manufacturing Science Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN 37932, USA
a) Corresponding author: [email protected]
Additive Manufacturing (AM)-Compression Molding (CM), AM-CM, a new large-scale manufacturing process developed at ORNL, brings the best of the two worlds. It combines the advantage of high fiber alignment possible in AM-printed parts with traditional CM, which improves bead-to-bead interfaces and removes porosity. High fiber alignment, low porosity, and selective bead placement can provide exceptional mechanical properties with precise control. In addition, an AM-produced preform can incorporate multiple materials for more structure functionalities, such as over-molding, selective reinforcement, and embedding electrically conductive pathways. All these benefits come along with a very fast part production cycle time, i.e., 2-minutes/part (1ft x1ft part). The high fiber alignment (more than 80 % fibers aligned in the deposition direction) and reduced porosity (less than 1.5% in volume) enhanced mechanical strength by roughly 11% compared with the samples produced by the traditional manufacturing process, i.e., the ECM process, and by approximately 30% higher with then AM process only.